Tista is a manga that’s not super well known but due to the success of Spy X Family you should be seeing it around a little more often now. It’s very short at only 2 volumes and you get the feeling that it ended up getting axed be cause there’s a lot of directions it could have gone. It’s definitely an intense story and one with a whole lot of tragedy mixed in. I’d say it works well although I could have used a bit of a stronger ending.
The manga starts by introducing us to Tista who is a legendary assassin. She is so skilled at sniping that none of her targets have ever even seen her. She can hit someone from multiple buildings away and basically pulls off impossible shots like it’s nothing. The reason for this is because her eyes are natural trigger lens as if from a gun. She can auto lock onto anything which makes her the perfect sniper. As people keep on dying, is there anyone who can stop her? Additionally the more Tista murders people, the more she wonders about the meaning of life in general.
See Tista works for the Church. While most people know the church to be a loving environment that takes in orphans and makes the world a better place, what they don’t realize is they have been training these kids into child soldiers whose only aim is to destroy all evil in the world. Now their reasoning for it is basically that the legal system is limited and there are often a lot of villains who escape unscathed because blackmail and corruption run rampant in this town. The villains have gotten so much influence around here that they basically operate out in the open. Of course this is an argument that most anti heroes/villains make so it doesn’t tend to hold water.
I will grant that it’s always a very interesting villain rationale though and it does tend to make a lot of high quality villains like Light Yagami. In this case Tista was groomed into this role ever since she was a small child so it’s not like she ever had much of a choice. It’s basically like brainwashing and that’s a main theme of the whole series. If you grew up in an environment where you were taught to murder from a young age and your eyes grew into aiming signs from the jump…did you ever really have a choice? Once you’re an adult maybe you can snap out of it but Tista’s still a teenager here.
That’s where some of the darker elements of the series come into play. The town is also such a rough place that you either murder the villains or watch them murder someone else. The cops are unfortunately not going to be very helpful here. We do see some good ones but as always there isn’t much point if the higher ups are involved in shady dealings as well. To their credit, the series doesn’t really go too hard on that area so we can presume most of the cop are good here and they’re just really ineffective in stopping crime. Additionally the country is a huge place so it’s not like you can stop every criminal. There will always be crime no matter how many people you stop. That’s true even with Tista bumping everyone off.
Tista does meet a guy named Arty who she starts to become friends with and that puts her in a rough spot. It actually creates vulnerabilities in her that the villains can exploit since he’s the first one to get her to doubt her mission. As I mentioned at the start one of her big advantages is that she can fire from super long distances so she’s never in any danger. Later on she likes murdering people at point blank range to see their expressions and naturally that puts her at a much greater risk. If there are any survivors then she will be remembered and of course all it takes is a lucky shot and she could die.
She basically becomes super blood thirsty by the end which was an interesting character development choice. It’s pretty easy to see how she was messed up after we see her origin story though. There’s domestic abuse and a close friend attempts to commit suicide. In both cases the culprit got to walk off free so Tista took care of that. That’s really set her on the path to being an executioner because if she can destroy all of the evil people then she can give the victims some peace.
Her broken psyche is represented by a chibi-monster version of her that appears to offer its own twisted input. It makes for a pretty interesting inner voice since Tista herself doesn’t talk much. At the end of the day naturally Tista takes some blame for this since she’s committing the murders but it’s not like she has much of a choice here. If she stops then she will end up being erased by the orphanage. If she turns herself into the cops she will be dead on the spot. If she just runs off and gets a new identity then every time she turns on the news and sees another crime she will feel responsible if the person has any priors since she would have been tasked with eliminating that person.
So there’s a whole lot of interesting themes here but of course the series is only 2 volumes long so it really ends just as it is still beginning. It’s the kind of series that could have been a bit risky if it kept on going though as with the dark themes I could easily see the series taking a step too far. Certain things are heavily implied here but the series mainly avoids being exploitative. Bad things happen and we know about them but the series doesn’t go out of its way to show them or drag them out which I appreciate.
In the end Tista is a very depressing series where characters are put into bad situations. The school side of things with Arty is fairly light hearted and in a way it shows just how alone Tista is. Most people live a fairly carefree life unaware of how twisted the rest of the city is. In a lot of ways Tista helps to preserve the peace so she can take a little solace there. It’s just that after you’ve murdered enough people it makes sense that you’re not really going to see the sunlight anymore.
As the main guy, Arty is a pretty solid character. He can be a little off like with the way that he drew a picture of Tista but for the most part he’s just your average guy trying to live life. He gets a lot of points for never selling Tista out or getting her into trouble. She saved his life after all and it’s always really annoying when the characters falters anyway. Owing your life to someone is a huge deal after all so there’s no room for mistakes like that. It would have been nice if he could have learned how to fight or something though. I think if this series had become a long running one he would have gotten something to do later on but as it is his role is a lot smaller than you’d expect.
On the cops side we have Snow who is one of the higher up agents looking into the Tista case. She is good at role playing and getting the suspects to lower their guards but ultimately she isn’t able to find a lot out. Arty gets a lot of credit there and of course the orphanage for having a lot of connections. They know how to shut down a story right away and with their brainwashing it is really hard to touch them. It’s another interesting dynamic of basically working for the villains. Usually you see villain orgs burying evidence and using legal loopholes to get away from the heroes and for once this is what’s protecting Tista.
Proko is one of the big members of the Church and he’s a rather twisted individual. We see how quickly he’s able to entertain the thought of just destroying Tista when she starts to doubt the mission. He really believes in destroying evil at any cost but that also means becoming evil himself. While you could say that the series tries to keep the Church in the grey for the most part, this guy teeters over the line into being flat out evil. The instant you are discussing murdering a child when there is no reason to do so, there isn’t any way to defend you.
It’s already murky enough training child soldiers but murdering them is another step entirely. I’m sure this guy has quite the dark origin story that led to him being so radical but many people have sob stories. It doesn’t give you the excuse to go over the edge and start doing things like this. Down the road I’m guessing Tista would have had to end up fighting the church and assisting the cops. As well intentioned as the group may be, we’ve seen this story many times where the vigilantes end up becoming full fledged heroes. The justifications just naturally continue to escalate which is why in general heroes try not to take a life. It gets a little too easy to keep on taking them afterwards which is why you have to stop that right at the jump.
The artwork for the series is really good. In some ways I’d say it even looks better than Spy X Family but maybe that’s just because this one has a lot of action. We get a lot of impressive double spreads and the background details are really on point. The visuals really pop out at you and go a long way in backing up the story. It’s all got a lot of weight behind it and it shows what Spy X Family could look like if the author ever really embraces the action element more.
Tista not being afraid to tackle some religious themes here also adds some extra depth to the series. After all, the Church is supposed to offer up a chance for redemption and the idea that you always have another chance. So doesn’t murdering these guys go against that? Well, Proko’s feeling here is basically that these guys have no shot of redemption on their own and so you’re removing them from the planet to spare others who actually could be redeemed. It’s also mentioned that this is a mercy in a way although I don’t think any of them actually believe this. The Church isn’t fully united in this mission either as some have second thoughts about this which would probably be a subplot the longer that the series went on. I fully expect a twist that the Church murdered Tista’s father as well since it’s implied so hard that it may as well be confirmed.
I can totally get it if some people are turned off from the series on the premise of the Church potentially being evil here but I just think it’s such an interesting view on the usual anti-hero argument. How bad is it to murder someone who is obviously evil? What’s the difference between doing so in normal peace times vs during a war? The latter is generally accepted by all while the former is frowned upon. Typically there are three reasons for this: 1. Reasonable doubt that the person is actually guilty which is why you need the judicial system and due process of law. 2. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. For example murdering a murderer may be fine but murdering someone for jaywalking would obviously not be okay. 3. Inspiring other vigilantes who may not have as strong of a moral compass or will murder innocent people by mistake.
All are very logical reasons and why you couldn’t do this widespread. Now if we take this specific example into play, in Tista so far the Church only punished people with such crimes that are worthy of death and of people who we know 100% did commit the crimes. That does solve the first two issues and nobody can really copy their approach because of the special eyes that the Church developed. (We don’t actually know exactly how that works which is something a longer series would delve into. Tista seemed to steal the eyes power right before her friend could unlock them in order to spare her the pain but the whole process is wrapped in mystery) The only weakness is of course if the Church gives Tista a false target she would never know which opens up a can of worms.
So are they doing more harm than good or vice versa? In this case the city is shown to be so evil and corrupt it’s hard to make an argument against them. They’ve destroyed so many murderers and gang members who would have gone free to terrorize people. I think this could be a good editorial for the future about anti-heroes but again that’s why this series is so interesting. Long story short, I don’t disagree with the Church’s actions. I don’t trust them but so far from what we’ve seen they are only making the world a better place and until they actually cross the line of murdering any innocents, whether they be one of the kids or a reporter who is getting close to the truth, I’d be rooting for them.
Overall, Tista is a solid series. It does a good job of showing the amount of psychological damage any sane person would get after murdering enough people. Even if you believe you are doing it for the greater good, murder is murder and will place a heavy burden on you. Additionally that means you are constantly being exposed to the darkness of the world and too much of that is tough as well. I wish the series could have really had time to explore more of the world and the characters even if it could have been a little tricky but ultimately a lot gets done within the two volumes. As long as you’re prepared for the adventure to get a little dark, this is a solid title to check out. There’s really a lot to ponder and discuss considering how short the series is which is impressive.
Overall 6/10
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